Sox bats stay silent

By Gregg Bell THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

Thursday

May 29, 2008 at 3:02 AM

Finally, two months into a dreadful season, the Mariners’ ace showed up.

Erik Bedard looked like the man for whom Seattle traded five players to Baltimore in February by allowing just two hits in seven innings, and Yuniesky Betancourt’s home run was all the Mariners needed to beat the Red Sox, 1-0, last night.

Reliever Brandon Morrow stranded Julio Lugo at second by striking out Dustin Pedroia on a 98-mph fastball to end the eighth. In the ninth, walks by J.J. Putz to Manny Ramírez and Sean Casey put the tying run at second with two outs. But Putz got Coco Crisp to ground out for his sixth save in nine chances, completing the first shutout of the season for Seattle.

The Mariners had lost seven straight and 20 of 25 games before taking the last two of the three-game series against Boston.

The Red Sox lost for the 10th time in 12 games away from Fenway Park. They got only two runners past first base against Bedard (4-3), who allowed a career-high nine runs in his last start Friday against the Yankees.

Boston had two on and one out in the fourth after a hard single by Ramírez, but Bedard got Lowell to hit into a double play that included a deft grab of the grounder and flip throw by second baseman Jose Lopez.

Ramírez went 1 for 4 and remained one home run short of becoming the 24th player in major league history with 500.

Betancourt made an error ahead of Ramírez’s three-run homer Monday night and then slammed a bat in the dugout when manager John McLaren took him out for pinch hitter Jeremy Reed in the bottom of the ninth with the score tied.

McLaren said he understood and talked to his 26-year-old shortstop yesterday.

“If you don’t like it, prove me wrong,” McLaren said.

Betancourt did in the third inning. He hit the third pitch he saw from Tim Wakefield (3-4) into Boston’s bullpen for his third home run of the season.

The game then settled into a showdown of Bedard’s precise fastballs and sharp curves against Wakefield’s fluttering knuckleball.

Wakefield was nearly as good as Bedard in his first start since allowing eight runs in five innings at Oakland. He had a season-high eight strikeouts while allowing five hits and walking none in his first complete game of the season. Only four Mariners even saw a three-ball count.

Daisuke Matsuzaka was to return to Boston for more tests on his fatigued pitching shoulder, leaving at least his next start in jeopardy.

The 11th Red Sox pitcher to win his first eight decisions in a season left his start in Seattle on Tuesday after four innings. He threw two seemingly routine warmup pitches before the bottom of the fifth, then departed with what the Red Sox continued to vaguely term yesterday as “shoulder fatigue.”

Matsuzaka’s chance to join Josh Beckett as the second Red Sox pitcher since 1971 to begin a season 9-0 is on hold while he awaits an MRI tomorrow. The rest of his teammates will be in Baltimore that day to begin a four-game series that Matsuzaka is still, for now, scheduled to finish on Monday.

“We are going to send him back to Boston for a precautionary MRI,” Red Sox manager Terry Francona said after emerging from behind a clubhouse office door that was closed for more than an hour while he met with Matsuzaka, the team’s training staff, and interpreters.

The team wants its doctors, led by medical director Dr. Thomas Gill, to review the MRI results before deciding what to do next with the AL’s co-leader in wins entering yesterday.

“If we are going to err, it is going to be on the side of caution,” Francona said. “We’re not forgetting who we are dealing with. We are dealing with a guy who is one of the best pitchers to ever come out of Japan. That’s why we signed him.”

Francona refused to assume Matsuzaka would miss his start against the Orioles. As Francona was talking in the dugout, Matsuzaka gently flipped a few balls overhand about 20 feet while standing near a screen in the outfield during batting practice.

“The word I used (Tuesday) night was ‘fatigue.’ I think that’s the proper word. If it’s vague, we’re not trying to be. Putting your hand on someone’s shoulder and examining it is not an exact science.”

Matsuzaka said after Tuesday’s game he wasn’t concerned with his shoulder issue. Yesterday, he did a series of strength tests with trainers. Assistant trainer and team rehabilitation coordinator Mike Reinold then compared those results to baseline tests Matsuzaka took in spring training.

“Actually, he tested out pretty good, which we were pleased” about, Francona said.

Boston gave Matsuzaka a $52 million, six-year contract after paying $51.1 million for the right to negotiate with the right-hander, who was 108-60 with a 2.95 ERA in eight seasons with Seibu of Japan’s Pacific League. He went 15-12 with a 4.40 ERA for the Red Sox last season and had been on track to perhaps start the All-Star Game for the AL on July 15.

Then came Tuesday, when he said he felt “off” in the bullpen before the game and then throughout his four innings in which he allowed three runs, two of them earned.

“I wasn’t at my best. After pitching the fourth inning, I definitely felt there was something wrong, and I had a conversation with the coaching staff,” he said through an interpreter late Tuesday. “I went out for the fifth inning to give it a try, but felt it was best to stop there.

“With so much of the season left, I thought that it would be best to come out of the game at that point.”

Never miss a story

Choose the plan that's right for you.
Digital access or digital and print delivery.